


Let Me Take You Out To Dinner

by gwynndelous (Eristastic)



Category: Free!
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Homophobia, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-17
Updated: 2015-06-17
Packaged: 2018-04-04 20:52:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4152507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eristastic/pseuds/gwynndelous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ai takes Sousuke back to his parents' to annoy them and the plan works a little too well. TW: homophobia</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let Me Take You Out To Dinner

**Author's Note:**

> I'm pretty sure at least half of my Free! stories can be summarised as: Sousuke is vaguely chill and acts as an agony aunt for his significantly less chill boyfriend of the week. 
> 
> The title, in all its blandness, is taken from a Vocaloid song of the same name that nobody ever listens to.

It was an…odd request, that much was certain: Sousuke had been asked some pretty weird favours in the past, but this one probably topped them all.

“Nitori, are you sure about this?”

Ai nodded his head at a dizzying speed, apparently still too overcome with nerves to speak. Sousuke had to hand it to the boy: for someone that chronically nervous, it must have been difficult to breach the subject. But Ai had persevered, going through the challenge as he did with any other: petrified and shouting.

“You really want me to pretend to be your boyfriend to piss your parents off?”

“I’m so sorry, Yamazaki-senpai!” Ai wailed into his hands. “I know it’s insulting, I’m so, so sorry! This was a mistake: let’s just pretend it never happened!” He leapt off the side of the bed and marched stiffly to the door, only to stop in his tracks when Sousuke said “No.”

“‘No’?”

“No. Don’t worry about it.” The second-year still looked terrified, so Sousuke tried a different tactic and cracked a small smile. “I don’t mind, seriously. If anything, it’s a compliment that I look intimidating, right?” Well, it wasn’t, really, but Ai looked less like he was about to jump out of a window, so that was something. “I’d just like to know why.”

“Ah! Y-yes, of course!” Ai whipped out of his state of shock and into life like a robot that had suddenly been turned on, all fidgeting and flighty glances anywhere but in Sousuke’s direction. “You see…um…it’s just that…last weekend my parents said some…stuff, and I didn’t really appreciate it, and it just made me really angry, you know? And I kept thinking ‘I’ll show them, I’ll make them see it could be so much worse’, and then I sort of hatched this stupid little plan, so…”

“Can I ask what they said?”

Ai made an entertaining show of looking pointedly at the ground and stuttering, so Sousuke took pity on him. “Never mind, then. And you don’t have to be so embarrassed, you know. Most teenagers end up wanting to rebel. You’re not abnormal in that respect.”

“In that respect, yeah, I guess…” Ai laughed dryly, still looking away.

“So I’m down, if you’d still like to try it out.”

“Really?!” And now he looked up, with shining eyes and clasped hands, the very picture of a sinner offered salvation. “You really would?”

“It’s just for one dinner, right? Why would I turn down a free meal?”

“Yamazaki-senpai, thank you!”

 

And that was how Sousuke found himself on the Nitoris’ doorstep with slicked-back hair in a baggy, sloppily done up uniform (and it had been a feat in and of itself trying to find a uniform that was too big for him) that Friday night. Ai hung off his arm cheerfully (secretly buzzing with nervousness, but they’d practiced and he turned out to be a good actor when it came down to it) and he himself wore a carefully composed expression: a mix of boredom, disdain and utter loathing of the world and everything in it.

With a hand that was only trembling a little, Ai rang the doorbell and plastered on his smile with more vigour.

“You really sure about this? This is your last chance to back out,” Sousuke whispered, and then rather wished he hadn’t because of the look of horror and regret that crossed Ai’s face as the depth of what he was about to do dawned on him. He wasn’t given the time to reply, though, as soon enough the door opened and his mother appeared.

“Hell-” she began before trailing off as she actually took in the figure beside her son. She recovered quickly enough. “Ah, hello! Do come in!” With a wave of her hand she ushered them inside the house, cornering Ai by the door.

“Dear, who’s your friend?” Her voice was wavering slightly and Sousuke almost smirked in satisfaction. But smiling wasn’t really part of the persona he had going on so he smothered it.

“This is my boyfriend, Yamazaki-senpai!” To look at Ai, you really wouldn’t think anything was amiss. Sousuke was impressed.

“Your…your _boyfriend_ …?” His mother seemed completely at a loss for words, but luckily she was saved by her husband coming in. He had much the same reaction, and while Sousuke greeted them properly and politely, he kept a sneer in his voice and constant look of contempt on his face. It wasn’t difficult: shortness seemed to run in the Nitori family, and Sousuke towered over them.

They tried their best: he’d give them that. Ai himself was a beacon of excitement and first love’s bliss, eclipsing even his parents’ wariness and shared warning glances they seemed to think Sousuke couldn’t see. But even though Sousuke kept his manners impeccable throughout the awkward conversation at dinner, he also made sure to do it with such hostility that they couldn’t help but be put off.  

But the more he did it, the more it felt…wrong. Something seemed off: Ai’s parents seemed as sweet and timid as the boy himself, and though it wasn’t as if Sousuke was going to back down after agreeing to play himself up as dangerous, it began to rub him the wrong way as they continually tried to find out good things about him (questions he quickly and expertly deflected), always with the same nervous but generally good-hearted smiles on their faces. And something was up with Ai too: he became almost panicked as the evening stretched on; he kept answering questions in abrupt bursts paired with forced laughter and even less natural smiles.

At the end of dinner, it was all Sousuke could do to excuse himself after a normal waiting interval rather than just straight up running from the tension.

As he wound his way through the Nitoris’ home, he started to wonder if he hadn’t made the wrong decision. It wasn’t as if he’d ever see them again (probably) so he didn’t mind the deception, but Ai’s parents didn’t seem _bad_ to him, and he couldn’t help feeling Ai had made the wrong decision and was regretting it terribly.

He sighed. That was fine, though: all Ai had to do was say they’d broken up after a week or so and it would all go back to normal. And he sure as hell didn’t resent the kid. Sousuke knew full well that Ai was a good person, and he wasn’t about to fault him just because he made a mistake and tried to get back at his seemingly lovely parents.

He’d just made up his mind to get Ai alone so they could discuss how to leave as quickly as possible when he heard raised voices from the dining room. Stomach sinking, he crept as close as he could without actually coming into sight, and listened.

“D-dear! Keep your voice down!” Ai’s mother spoke in a hushed voice, but it didn’t seem to have much effect as her husband didn’t lower his voice in the slightest.

“I don’t care if you want to experiment a little, Aiichirou, but this is going too far! Keep your _activities_ away from the house and come back to your senses!”

“Dad, it’s not an experiment…”

“Well then, what the hell is it?! I’ll be damned if this is to become your lifestyle! We were lenient at first because we know teenagers need time to grow and learn, but it’s been a year. Give up this stupid phase now!”

“It’s not a phase: I _am_ gay, and that’s not going to-”

“Don’t _say_ that!” His mother sounded stricken, her outburst quelling Ai’s words. “You’ll get over it soon, so don’t say that like it’s permanent, Aiichirou!”

Everything went quiet, and Sousuke had had enough. He could already picture Ai’s face, crumpled in disappointment, and that was too much for him to stand. He knew he should let Ai deal with it, let Ai stand up for himself because he knew he could, but he could feel anger coming over him too fast to suppress, so, with shaking muscles and a snarl in his voice, he strode into the room, grabbed Ai’s hand and pulled him up. He nodded back to Ai’s parents, but the boy had already begun to run for the door and he didn’t waste any time in following.

Ai slowed into a jog halfway down the street before stopping completely.

“Why didn’t you tell me what they actually objected to?” He didn’t really know why he’d asked: the answer was clear enough. Sousuke didn’t really think he’d get an answer anyway, because Ai was too busy muttering frantic ‘I’m sorry’s to the pavement to say anything else. He put an arm over the boy’s shoulders and gently pushed him back to a walking pace. “Come on.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have dragged you into this…”

“Better that than you face it alone, I figure.”

“But…but…I made you act like…and I didn’t tell you…”

“Nitori, hey…” Sousuke tried to get his full attention, and thankfully Ai took the message, looking up with tearful eyes. “It’s _fine_. I agreed from the start, and either way I’m gay too. I just wish you’d told me.”

Sousuke had tried to brush over the confession without drawing attention to it, but Ai still looked at him in wonderment for a second, then quickly looked away. “This was such a mistake.”

Sousuke considered the statement, and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, it was.”

“I just…they kept calling it a phase, you know? Said it was just because I was surrounded by guys all the time, and that I’d grow out of it eventually. That I _should_ grow out of it, as soon as possible. And I thought…” he laughed weakly. “I thought that maybe if I showed up with someone who was obviously bad news – oh, I didn’t mean any offence, I’m sorry! – then they’d reconsider.”

“That was probably a bad assumption to make.”

“Yeah, I…I see that now.”

They walked in silence to a small park in the middle of the residential area, long since emptied of any children. Ai sat down heavily on a swing, pushing himself back and forth with his foot in jerky little movements.

“What do you want to do now?” Sousuke asked, leaning on the metal framework.

“Don’t know. What is there to do? I don’t think they’ll punish me hugely or anything, but…they’re not going to accept it in a million years, you know?” He thought for a second. “Uh…if you don’t mind me asking, how did you get your parents to…?”

“They don’t know.”

“Ah. Maybe I should have just gone that route.”

“Maybe. I don’t think you can be faulted for trying, though.” A thought struck him, and even though the timing was obviously wrong, he felt he had to ask, “You don’t feel guilty about it, do you? In general, I mean.”

“I…no. Maybe. Sort of. A little. In _theory_ , I guess I don’t, but…” he hunched his shoulders, gripping the swing’s chains tighter. “When I think about how disappointed my parents are, then I feel guilty.”

Sousuke moved to the back of the swing and put his hand on Ai’s head. Ai didn’t flinch or move away, so Sousuke stroked his hair, trying to think of something he could say. He’d never been through the situation: he kept himself to himself for precisely this reason. It wasn’t that he was scared of his family’s reaction, he just didn’t want to bother with it. He knew who he was and he was fine with it, and the idea of involving other people who didn’t have to be involved seemed stupid to him. Rin knew and Kou knew, and that was enough.

“Can I help?” he asked.

“I couldn’t ask anything of you…you’ve already done so much, Yamazaki-senpai.”

“I still want to help.”

“Then…can you stay with me? For a bit?”

Sousuke smiled, taking a seat on the other swing. “Yeah, I can do that.”

He took Ai’s hand and slowly they swung tiny distances to different rhythms, propelled by the smallest of movements from their feet that were being swallowed into the sand of the play area. From the houses around them, sounds of clinking cutlery or plates rang along with the echoes of people’s voices, calling out words made indistinguishable by the distance. The sun began to set over the tops of the small barrier of trees between the park and the road, and Sousuke looked beside him only to see that Ai was watching him. He looked back for a second, then leant over, ignoring the squeaks of protest from the swing set, and kissed him.

**Author's Note:**

> [‘Start of Something New’ starts playing in the background]


End file.
